The Loss
by Emily Aine Capulet
Summary: Another Animorphs book, set somewhere in the middle of the series....one of the group is lost, now what?


"Come on, Marco, we've been planning this mission for  
  
weeks. You can't chicken out now!" Jake said. "We're all  
  
scared, but you gotta come through. We need you tomorrow,  
  
dude." We all understood how Marco felt, because it's the  
  
same thing each one of us was feeling. It's just that Marco was  
  
the only one who could get away with saying it. Marco is like  
  
that. Let me explain something to you. The Earth is under  
  
attack. Not attack, like the little green men from Mars are  
  
firing laser beams at us or anything. We're being invaded  
  
quietly and discreetly by the Yeerks. They are a parasitic  
  
species like gray slugs. They crawl into your brain and flatten  
  
themselves into every crevice. They can open your mind and  
  
read it like a novel. They can see every dream, every fear, and  
  
every memory. And worse, they can laugh at it. Anyone and  
  
everyone could be one. Your mom, dad, brother (Jake's  
  
brother Tom is a Controller), the cop at the donut shop, or  
  
your favorite teacher.  
  
I'm Rachel. I can't tell you any specifics bout me  
  
because we can never let anyone know who we really are. It  
  
would be better to be dead. Better dead that to be controlled  
  
by the Yeerks. I'm tall and blonde, but believe me, if you ever  
  
feel the need to call me airheaded, you better hold your  
  
tongue because that is one thing that I definitely am not.  
  
Marco calls me Xena: Warrior Princess. I guess I am a little too  
  
into the whole war thing, but I'm not a maniac. I know my  
  
limits. It's just that up until that night at the construction site,  
  
I felt like my life was missing something. I felt like God had a  
  
purpose for my life but that I didn't know what it was. I know  
  
that killing is bad, no matter what you're killing, but I think  
  
that ours is justified. And I'm sure any human who is  
  
controlled by a Yeerk would agree with us.  
  
I know alot about being a Controller because Jake was  
  
one for a while. He told us everything about it. Well, almost  
  
everything. I have a feeling that he wasn't telling us  
  
everything. But I know that there are some things that I don't  
  
want to know.  
  
Jake doesn't want or ask for the opportunity to be our  
  
leader. But he is. He has this commanding presence. It makes  
  
you want to stand up straight and say "Yes, sir" and "No, sir".  
  
Even Ax calls him "Prince Jake". Despite many attempts to get  
  
him to stop, Ax will always consider him his Prince. He's my  
  
cousin, (Jake's my cousin, not Ax) and I know we're a lot alike,  
  
but he'll always have authority over me. Cassie, my best friend  
  
says that I'm like that, too, but I don't think so.  
  
Cassie is exactly the opposite of Jake and I. She isn't  
  
controlling at all and doesn't care about fashion or what she  
  
looks like. She wears the most ordinary clothes of anyone I  
  
know. That doesn't really mean anything, but that's one of the  
  
things I notice about people. She is soft-spoken, but has an  
  
outlandish love for animals. Her mom works at the Gardens, a  
  
zoo where we have acquired many animals. Her dad runs an  
  
emergency animal clinic in their barn. Cassie is the most  
  
talented morpher of us all, because, as Marco says, "We all  
  
know she likes animals more than humans anyways".  
  
Sometimes, she can control the morphing and give herself  
  
owl's wings or tiger claws just for a moment. It's really cool.  
  
Not even Ax can morph like her. He has a word for it,  
  
but I can never remember what it is. It means artist in Ax-  
  
speak. Let me explain. Ax is an Andalite. His older brother,  
  
Prince Elfangor Sirinial-Shamtul crash-landed on Earth and  
  
gave us those morphing powers before he was murdered. The  
  
one who killed him was Visser Three. No one will ever mention  
  
it, except Marco, who makes jokes about it, as he does about  
  
everything else.  
  
You see, Marco has an odd way of expressing himself.  
  
He can find a joke or a one-liner in any situation imaginable.  
  
He hides his fear and sadness behind his humor. His mother  
  
drowned a while back, or atleast that's what we all thought.  
  
She was in fact infested by a Yeerk and was soon inhabited by  
  
Visser One. We all are convinced that Marco is the first ever-  
  
actual egomaniac on the face of the Earth. No one will ever be  
  
as cute as Marco thinks he is. And I mean, no one. He's really  
  
great once you get to know him, but it's hard to get past that  
  
reckless sense of humor.  
  
The last member of our strange group is Tobias. You  
  
see Tobias isn't totally human anymore. Tobias was trapped in  
  
a morph of a red-tailed hawk for more than two hours. That's  
  
the only "rule" to morphing. Never, ever stay in a morph for  
  
more than two hours. He is, or was, destined to remain in the  
  
hawk body forever. The Ellimist, one of the puppet masters of  
  
the universe, decided to give a second chance and return to  
  
him his morphing powers. His normal body is a hawk, but he  
  
can now morph and go on missions with the rest of us.  
  
Back to our mission. This mission isn't especially  
  
complicated, yet it's very important. On our last mission, we  
  
were out in Tobias' and Ax's territory working with the free  
  
Hork-Bajir. Tobias says that he saw a little girl walking near us  
  
and that she had something in her hand. He told us that he  
  
was pretty sure it was a camera. So Tobias tracked the little  
  
girl to her house. Now all we have to do is get into her house,  
  
take the camera, and destroy it. Not so difficult, right? Right.  
  
  
  
Chapter 1  
  
Today is what, Saturday? No, it's Sunday. And we're on  
  
our way to the little girl's house. Tobias said her name is  
  
Emily. How he found that out, I'll never know. Too much time  
  
on his hands, I guess. Well, no hands, but lots of time. I think  
  
everyone remembers when Tobias said that. It was a long time  
  
ago, the first time he ever made a joke about his condition.  
  
We're all in our bird morphs, Tobias as himself, I'm a  
  
bald eagle, Jake and Marco are ospreys, and Cassie is her  
  
beloved owl. We aren't flying together. Flying together would  
  
be alot easier, but the birds we are all morphed as, don't  
  
exactly kick it together. Any bird watchers may find our flying  
  
together as just a bit odd.  
  
So, we were flying at different altitudes at different  
  
intervals from each other. Tobias was in the lead, riding the  
  
thermals as he always does. Jake and Marco were the closest  
  
together, flying low.  
  
Cassie was nowhere to be found. She said she'd catch  
  
up, as she had something to finish. We said we'd wait, but she  
  
insisted.  
  
I was way up, above everyone else, because eagles  
  
aren't normally seen around these parts and the last thing we  
  
wanted to do was raise suspicions.  
  
  
  
Tobias said in thought-speak, There's the house. 


End file.
